Demon Baseball | 3/12/2018 2:43:00 PM

NATCHITOCHES – When the Northwestern State baseball team hosts state rival UL Monroe at 6 p.m. Tuesday, it will have been 17 days since the Demons last played a game at Brown-Stroud Field.
 
It also will have been 21 days since Northwestern State (9-7) and the Warhawks (10-5) met in what may have been a turning-point game for the Demons.
 
"If you've been watching us, you can tell we're a much different team," second-year head coach Bobby Barbier said. "It's a much more confident team. That first road game against ULM, we had some arms run out there hoping to throw the ball in the strike zone. We had some hitters who weren't sure of themselves yet who let opportunities slip by. Obviously, it was one of the worst games we played this year and we paid for it.
 
Tuesday's game will be Greek Night at Brown-Stroud Field. Super 1 Foods will sponsor a cookout available to anyone who attends wearing Greek letters.
 
Northwestern State dropped that game 11-6 to ULM as the Demons issued a season-high 10 walks while also committing three errors, which lead to three unearned runs, including a pair in ULM's three-run sixth inning that gave the Warhawks a five-run lead.
 
Since that game, the Demons have issued 45 walks in 114 2-3 innings, an average of 3.5 walks per nine innings.
 
"We can bounce back from something like that, which we have," Barbier said. "Now have some of those same guys run out there and show the improvement they've made over the past three weeks. That's the goal – improve every single day so by the end of the season we're much better than we are now."
 
One of those pitchers, junior right-hander Jerry Maddox, will start against ULM for the second time this season.
 
Maddox took the loss against the Warhawks, pitching 2 1-3 innings in his first start as a Demon. In his most recent start, Maddox retired the first 11 Texas A&M batters he faced.
 
Maddox worked five-plus innings against the No. 9-ranked Aggies in a 6-1 loss, keeping one of the top hitting teams in the nation off balance for much of his outing.
 
"You see how well (NSU pitchers) did after looking at what (Texas A&M) did to a really good team over the weekend," Barbier said. "They scored a bunch of runs on a very good Long Beach State team. It goes to show you how potent they are on offense and how good of a job we did to keep them down, and Jerry was one of the main ones who did.
 
"Jerry has the stuff where, when you look at him on a Tuesday night, you say, 'Why isn't he throwing on Friday?' He could be throwing on Friday night no doubt about it. If he continues to build on what he did last week, he will creep into that weekend rotation, but we're making it hard on him because the guys on the weekend have pitched well."
 
The Demons pitched well in a weekend series win at Nicholls, pitching to a 2.42 ERA against the Colonels.
 
Offensively, Northwestern State found timely hits more and more as the weekend proceeded, especially in Sunday's finale.
 
Trailing 3-1 in the seventh inning of the series finale, all four Northwestern State seniors had a hand in helping the Demons rally for the victory.
 
Kelsey Richard started it with a one-out, solo home run. Two batters later, Kwan Adkins' speed led to a Nicholls error, and he scored the go-ahead run on David Fry's two-run double.
 
The rally made a winner of Danny Hlad, who got the Demons out of trouble in the sixth and recorded an out in the seventh before an hour-long weather delay halted the game.
 
"When you have those older guys stepping up, the younger guys fall in line," Barbier said. "They have something to strive for. They can look at David Fry, who hit .260 his freshman year, and see how hard he worked to develop into the player he is today. Kelsey has caught every game for us. When guys go through rough patches, you want to get them out, get them a breather. We haven't had that opportunity with Kelsey or a lot of guys. It was good to see him fight through and come up with a couple of big hits."
 
Probable Pitchers
ULM RHP Cole Trichel (0-0, 10.12) at Northwestern State RHP Jerry Maddox (0-2, 5.25)